Chasidut su Genesi 34:34
Kedushat Levi
Genesis 34,1. “Dinah, Leah’s daughter left her house unaccompanied;” Bereshit Rabbah 79,1comments on this: “like mother like daughter;” this is a reference to the forwardness of Leah when she informed her husband Yaakov that it was her turn to host him, on account of the mandrakes of her son Reuven, etc. (Genesis 30,16). According to Rashi quoting B’rachot 60, the fetus from which Dinah was born was originally meant to produce a male child. Leah’s prayer was intended to prevent her sister from being put to shame, as if the fetus in Leah’s womb would be born as a male, Rachel would wind up with fewer sons than even Yaakov’s hand maids. As a result of her prayer Dinah, i.e. a female, was born בת לאה, these words, that on the face of it do not tell us anything we did not know, allude to this hidden aspect of Leah’s pregnancy on this occasion. It was her prayer that resulted in Dinah being born as a female. When the Torah continues with: וירא אותה שכם וגו', ”Shechem ,son of Chamor saw her, etc;” this is an allusion to the fact that if Leah had not prayed for this child to be a daughter, the whole incident of the rape would have been prevented as Shechem would not have had an opportunity to set eyes on a daughter of Yaakov.
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Kedushat Levi
Deuteronomy 10,14. “Mark, the heavens to its furthest reaches are G’ds, etc.;” the vowel “o” (cholem) on top of the letter, symbolizes the essence of Hashem in both the names Hashem and elokim, whereas the semi vowel sh’va, under the letter symbolizes the tzimtzum, restrictions that G’d has imposed upon Himself in His relations with the inhabitants of our part of the universe. The vowel kametz on the other hand, symbolizes G’d’s largesse after He has imposed restrictions upon Himself. This is the allegorical meaning of the word חשק in the verse 15, a word normally translated as “being fond of,” in the sense of being desirous of. According to the author, Moses used this word there as an acronym, a sequence of the first letters of the vowels חולם, שוא, קמץ. The message Moses wished to convey to the Jewish people was that G’d imposed restrictions upon Himself in order to be able to dispense His largesse to them.
[I assume, that seeing that the word חשק is used in the sense of carnal desire, as in Genesis 34,8 where Chamor, father of Sh’chem explains the infatuation of his son for Yaakov’s daughter Dinah, our author preferred not to understand it in this sense. Ed.]
Moses implies that the patriarchs of the Jewish people had been the only recipients of this outpouring of G’d’s largesse.
[I assume, that seeing that the word חשק is used in the sense of carnal desire, as in Genesis 34,8 where Chamor, father of Sh’chem explains the infatuation of his son for Yaakov’s daughter Dinah, our author preferred not to understand it in this sense. Ed.]
Moses implies that the patriarchs of the Jewish people had been the only recipients of this outpouring of G’d’s largesse.
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